The emerging mission requirement to transfer streaming video from untrusted sources across network domains in the low-to-high direction creates a number of security problems. Prevailing security requirements dictate that all data be filtered to reduce threat of embedded malicious software, yet this is particularly difficult to do with real-time video because of the inherent tradeoffs between data filter efficacy (confidence in detection of security violations), time delays (latency), and video resolution (which degenerates with most methods of data sanitization).
It is desirable to display video at full resolution with minimal time delay, while simultaneously protecting the integrity of data in the receiving network from potential malware threats.
Video is often produced and displayed using open-source software; and, increasingly, open-source software tools are available to embed potentially malicious data using methods increasingly difficult to detect. This suggests that the ability to fully filter video data at a CDS (cross domain system) may not be technically feasible or at least quite difficult.
In addition, highly engineered solutions, such as the Owl Computing Technologies Dual Diode, (described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,068,415, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference) provide a direct point-to-point optical link between network domains in the low-to-high direction. The unidirectionality of the data transfer is enforced in the circuitry of the network interface cards at both network endpoints and in the cable interconnects. In this way, the hardware provides an added layer of assurance of unidirectional information flow and non-bypassable operation. In contrast to software based one-way data transfer systems, it is easy to prove that data is not bypassing the Dual Diode.
In such systems, shown in block diagram form in FIG. 1, a first server (the Blue Server) 101 includes a transmit application 102 for sending data across a one-way data link, e.g., optical link 104, from a first network domain coupled to server 101 to a second network domain coupled to server 111. First server 101 also includes a transmit (here a phototransmission) component, e.g., optical emitter 103. Transmit application 102 provides data to the optical emitter for transmission across the optical link 104. A second server (the Red Server) 111 includes a receive (here a photodetection) component, e.g., optical detector 113, for receiving data from the optical link 104, which data is then provided to the receive application 112 for further processing. The first server 101 is only able to transmit data to second server 111, since it does not include any receive circuitry (e.g., an optical detector comparable to detector 113) and the second server 11 is only able to receive data from first server 101, since it does not include any transmit circuitry (e.g., an optical emitter comparable to emitter 103.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system for displaying video at a higher domain network that is received from a lower domain network and which eliminates any threat of data damage from malware which may be included within the received video stream.